Record element holder



May 21, 1940. UNK 2,201,589

RECORD ELEMENT HOLDER Filed March 15, 1939 .Fza

.EMAZ.

INVENTOR. F/(EST L. W LINK.

ATTORNEYS- detail here.

Patented May 21-, 1940 MATENT orrrcs Rsconp ELEMENT HGLDER Forest L. W. Link, Silvertcn, Ohio, assignor to The Globe-Wemicke Company, Norwood, Ohio,

a corporation of Ohio Application March 13, 1939, Serial No. 261,435 e Claims. (o1. 12916.7)

This invention relates to visible index systems and particularly to card holders therefor. The advantages of the visible index type of system are well known and need not be pointed out in Generally speaking a visible index file is one in which a number of holders are carried in a shallow drawer, each of said holders carrying one or more pockets for carrying record cards or each of the holders carrying directly the record cards whereby the cards may be substantially fiat in said drawer in overlapped relation, and whereby any desired number may be turned over so that an individual card may be examined in detail.

Visible index systems now on the marketare extremely simple and very inexpensive to manufacture whereby the cost of the system may be brought down to a level to make it available to the small businesses which have heretofore not been able to obtain the advantages thereof.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a holder of such nature that record'cards or pockets for carrying the record cards may be expeditiously inserted and removed from the holder by a simple manual procedure without the necessity of operating any fastening element or the like, and which will nevertheless hold the cards in position so that they will not be re.- movable from the holder except by a positive act. These and other objects of my invention which apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these specifications, I accomplish by that certain construction and arrangement of parts of which I shall now describe exemplary embodiments. 49 Reference is now made to the drawing which forms a part hereof, and in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of the blank from which a holder according to my invention is formed. Fig. 2 is an end elevation thereof. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the completely formed holder.

Fig. 4 is an end elevation of Fig. 3. Fig. 5' is a side elevation of a holder showing a card in position to be placed in the holder. Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view on anenlarged scale taken on the line 6-5 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a View similar to Fig. 6 showing-the card during the inserting operation.

Fig. 8 is a view similar to'Figs; 6 and '7 showing the card in position. 7

the card holders in place.

"vide a generally comb shaped blank comprising i are to be described hereinafter or which will be Fig. '9 is a view similar to Figs. 6, '7 and 8, showing the position of the card at a stage in the procedure for removing the cardfrom the holder. I

Fig. 10 is an elevational view of Fig. 9 looking from the left in that figure and with parts broken away. 7

Fig. 11 15a perspective View of an exemplary tray containing a number of holders according to my invention, and a follower block for holding m Fig. 12, is a cross sectional view similar to Fig.

6 of a modified form of my invention.

Brieflly, in the practice of my invention, I proa substantially strip like portion it having a 315 plurality of teeth extending therefrom, as indicated at i i. As shown in the figure these teeth are preferably rounded at their ends.- In forming up the holder the strip like portion It 'is formed into a generally channel like c'onfiguration and the teeth l i are bent over in an arcuate shape so that the ends of the teeth H extend below the opposite edge of the channel shaped portion. Referring to Fig. 4, it will be noted that the forming operation is such that it forms a right angle at E2 and right angles l3 at each end. only of the opposite side and that intermediate the right angle portions G3 the opposite side of the channel like portion is arcuately curved as indicated at i l in the various figures. The reason for this is that the curvature It is desirable in my invention, as will be pointed out hereinafter, and yet in order that the holder may have a solid seat in its tray, it is desirable that the end portion thereof be fiat. As will be seen in the various figures, the ends of the holder are provided with the flat portions I3a while the central portion therebetween is curved on one side.

The holders will preferably be held in a tray 40 N5 of conventional structure having the downturned edge portions 16. The end portions of the holder engage underneath the flanges l6 and a plurality'of the holders are held in position by means of a follower block Ii, which may be of any desired type and will preferably be of the type disclosed in my Patent N0.2,-178,633, dated Nov. '7, 1939. When it is desired to remove a holder or add a holder to the drawer. the follower block H is retracted and the individual holders may then be skewed diagonally, thus removing their end portions from engagement under the flanges l6.

As pointed out above, a holder according to my invention may be used in connection 'with'a pocket, said pocket being adapted to carry one or more record cards, for example, as disclosed in my said patent, or the holder may be used directly with a record card. In this case I will describe its use in connection with a record card l8, but it will be understood that this description applies equally to a pocket for record cards and the use of the term record element in the claims is intended to cover both a record element per se and a pocket for carrying record elements.

The card l8, as shown in Fig. 5, is provided with a number of rectangular perforations I9 which are spaced in the same manner as the teeth ll of the holder. The perforations l9 are disposed adjacent the lower edge of the card and the card itself as seen in the figure, is slightly narrower at its lower end by virtue of the cutcuts 20 which clear the end portions 13a of the holder.

The card is preferably made from a relatively stiff material so that when its lower edge (as seen in the drawing) is curved or deformed as hereinafter described, it will readily snap back into fiat condition.

The card is inserted in the following manner: It is lowered into the holder in the position shown in Figs. 5 and 6 in the direction of the arrow. It will be noted that in the forming of the holder the ends of the teeth II have been bent short of the opposed portion of the channel so as to leave a space indicated in Fig. 6 at 2 l. The lower edge of the card is slipped into this space and, as shown in Fig. 7, the card will be bent by virtue of the curvature l4 until the perforations 19 of the card reach the ends of the teeth i I. At this point the resiliency of the card will cause it to tend to straighten, (the card being indicated at a transitory position in dotted lines at 22) until the card attains the position shown in dotted lines at 23. As shown in Fig. 8, the card may now lie fiat and may be turned over without disengagement from the teeth I l since the ends of the teeth II project below the edge Illa of the holder.

The procedure in removing a card from the holder is as follows: Referring to Figs. 9 and 10, the card is first pushed downwardly whereby the upper edge of the perforations I9 is brought below the ends of the teeth II, whereby the teeth are withdrawn from engagement in the perforations. The card is then simply moved sideways as shown in Fig. 10, until the perforations !9 come between the teeth H. The card may then readily be withdrawn.

It will be seen that I have provided a very inexpensive and simple card holder for a visible index system, said holder being made of a single piece of material and having no moving parts. Yet as has been pointed out, a card may be inserted in the holder by a single motion and may be removed from the holder by a combination of three simple movements (downwardly, laterally and upwardly).

In accordance with the modification of my invention shown in Fig. 12, the entire length of the holder has a channel shaped cross section similar to that at the ends of the preferred form heretofore described at Ha. I have found that a card may be inserted and removed from this type of holder in a manner similar to that described above, and of course this construction is still cheaper.

It will of course be clear that modifications may be made in my invention without departing from the spirit thereof and that the precise configuration of the parts may be varied, and I therefore wish it to be understood that I do not intend to limit myself otherwise than as pointed out in the claims which follow.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A visible index card holder comprising a generally channel shaped element, the shape of said element being modified intermediate the ends thereof, so that one arm of said channel extends upwardly from the web in a smooth curve and a plurality of teeth extending upwardly, inwardly and downwardly from the other arm of said channel in an arc, the ends of said teeth extending slightly below the upper edge of the opposed arm of said channel.

2. A visible index card holder comprising a generally channel shaped element, the shape of said element being modified intermediate the ends thereof, so that one arm of said channel extends upwardly from the web in a smooth curve and a plurality of teeth extending upwardly, inwardly and downwardly from the other arm of said channel in an arc, the ends of said teeth extending slightly below the upper edge of the opposed arm of said channel, said channel and teeth being made from a non-resilient material.

3. A card holder for visible index systems comprising a generally channel shaped element, said element intermediate its ends being formed with an arcuate side and a substantially vertical side, and having a plurality of teeth extending in an arc upwardly, inwardly and downwardly from said substantially vertical side, the ends of said teeth extending slightly below the upper edge of said arcuate side and being inwardly spaced therefrom.

4. A card holder for visible index systems comprising a generally channel shaped element, said element intermediate its ends being formed with an arcuate side and a substantially vertical side,

and having a plurality of teeth extending in an arc upwardly, inwardly and downwardly from said substantially vertical side, the ends of said teeth extending slightly below the upper edge of said arcuate side and being inwardly spaced therefrom, said holder being integrally formed from a non-resillient material.

5. In combination with a card holder according to claim 3, a record element made from a relatively stiff material and having a number of generally rectangular perforations along its lower edge spaced to mate with the teeth on said holder whereby said record element may be engaged with said holder by being inserted between said arcuate portion and said teeth and thrust downwardly, and whereby the stiffness of the material of the record element will cause the same to straighten and the perforations to engage with the teeth when the lower edges of said perforations pass the edges of said teeth, and whereby said record element may be removed from said holder by being thrust further downwardly until the upper edges of said perforations pass the edges of said teeth and then being moved laterally and withdrawn,

6. A card holder for visible index systems comprising a generally channel shaped element, said element having an arcuate side and a substantially vertical side, and having a plurality of teeth extending in an arc upwardly, inwardly and downwardly from said substantially vertical side, the ends of said teeth extending slightly below the top edge of said arcuate side and being inwardly spaced therefrom.

FOREST L. W. LINK. 

